Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Mary Worth 226

And here I've been worrying that Mary Worth was not appearing in enough papers.

Yesterday, I had a telephone conversation with Steve Massey, Features Editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You'll recall that they took a survey last March to determine which comic strip they should consider cutting when Doonsbury returned. He told me that they'd heard from hundreds of Mary Worth fans asking them not to cut the strip. He said that Mary Worth always comes in last in these surveys, but the fans who actually do read it (and who happen to be, he said, in their subscribers' elderly demographic) are such a vocal minority, that his paper can't cut her... as much as he'd like to. The Post-Gazette is keeping Mary Worth, he said, "beyond my fondest dreams." So it pays to let the papers know how much you enjoy Mary Worth. (Massey also told me that they were cutting the Amazing Spider-Man, which would disappoint the children. I can't blame him, though. Now that's a boring strip.)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! The paper says he was "elected"!
That's not what I heard.
Something's very fishy in Santa Royale politics.

Mollie said...

I was thinking the same thing, Birdie! Maybe that explains why Mary's stepping out with Ron is front-page news. What does she know? When did she know it?

I love how Jeff seizes the opportunity to make a "Mary, Mary, quite contrary" joke, but doesn't quite manage to pull it off. I bet Ron wouldn't have bungled it like that.

Anonymous said...

Hey! We can't quibble over this appointed/elected nuance. This is the Worthiverse--ANYTHING can happen! According to another strip wrier, "it's called writing, but I digress...

Jeff's getting confrontational AND he's going to be the Dumper, not the Dumpee. Oh, boy! Oh, boy! Oh, boy!

And how is it that Mary failed to notice that photographer in the restaurant snapping a picture? What was in the drink she was sharing with Ron? Hmmmm....

Wanders said...

birdie, maybe Jeff only thinks he was appointed, but really he was elected by voters. I've known less informed politicians.

Mollie, I didn't even catch Jeff's attempt at irony. Thanks for pointing it out.

spike, I don't understand why Jeff was all, "Mary I miss you so much," while he was reading the paper, and now he's all, "Explain this you hussy!"

Anonymous said...

wanders: Jeff was just setting things up for the kill. [REO Speedwagon's "Keep on Lovin' You" comes to mind: "Instead you lay still in the grass, all coiled up and hissin'."]

Mary could've put Jeff off a few more days, weeks, or even months, since she was the one who said they each needed "breathing room" in the 5/30/08 installment. I'm actually looking forward to the next few days, hoping that Jeff drops Mary like the bad apple she is.

Anonymous said...

This is getting interesting. Once Mary drops (or is dropped by) Jeff, she won't leave him alone. She'll have to punish him.

I foresee that some of those wonderful downtown revitalization projects are going to involve the use of eminent domain laws against Dr Jeff.

Miss Emish said...

Maybe Santa Royale is some sort of totalitarian 1984 mind control type environment (there is already plenty of evidence supporting this) and they just inform people who they "elected," brain washing them into thinking the people they live with some sort of notion of democracy when actually their lives are utterly under control. Ron, resistant to mind control accidentally slipped up and said "appointed." He's being fitted for rat-infested head gear as we speak.

JLH said...

I just have to say that this is the most DRAMATIC episode I've seen since Aldo -- Dr. Jeff is getting angry! Ooooh, I can't wait for tomorrow! What an explosion of anger in Silver World!

Anonymous said...

Knowing the width of that photo caption is 20 or so characters, what could the full text possibly be?